Item:
ON4390

Original WWII Italian Beretta Model 38A Parts Set - MAB 38A

Item Description

Original Item: Only One Available. This Beretta Model 38A was recently acquired from a private collection. Most likely it was a GI Bring-back that has been deactivated. The stock is marked:

M

4396

This sample flame cut to BATF specifications is offered in very good condition. It features a fully functional barrel with attached ventilated barrel jacket and magazine well receiver section. Internal parts are included, as well as the trigger group, receiver end piece, butt cap, and rear sight.

The MAB 38 (Moschetto Automatico Beretta Modello 1938), Modello 38, or Model 38 and its variants were a series of official submachine guns of the Royal Italian Army introduced in 1938, and used during World War II.

The Model 1938 can be recognized by its machined steel receiver, fine craftsmanship and finish and by the perforated cooling jacket over the barrel. It was produced from 1938 to 1950 and fired 9×19mm Parabellum ammunition at 600 rounds per minute. It used 10, 20, 30 or 40-round magazines; the short 10-round magazine, when used in conjunction with the fixed bayonet, was popular with Allied and Axis forces for guarding prisoners or internal security. In combat, the 30 round magazine was the most common. The original MAB 38, first issued to Italian police in 1939, had a bayonet mount and stock rest for the Carcano M91/38 folding bayonet.

In compliance with Italian army requirements, bayonet mount and rest were eliminated and the recoil compensator was redesigned, the two horizontal muzzle slots substituted by 4 transversal cuttings, judged more effective. This standard army variant was renamed MAB 38A and issued in 1941. A redesigned bayonet based on the Carcano was issued, attaching using a lug and a dovetail in the muzzle booster. We sadly do not have any original bayonets, but we do have reproduction Beretta 38A bayonets available separately.

Originally designed by Tullio Marengoni in 1935, the Modello 38 (M38) was developed from the Beretta Modello 18, itself derived from the Villar Perosa light machine gun of World War I fame. It is widely acknowledged as the most successful and effective Italian small arm of World War II.

Italy's limited industrial base in World War II was no real barrier toward the development of advanced and effective small firearms since at the time most weapons did require large amounts of artisanal and semi-artisanal man-hours to be fine-tuned and made reliable by default. At this, Italian specialized workers excelled and the initial slow production ratio meant that the Model 38 only became available in large numbers in 1943, when the fascist regime was toppled and Italy split between allied-aligned co-belligerent forces and German collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic. During 1941 and 1942, this weapon was available almost exclusively to paratroopers, Blackshirts, tank crews and Carabinieri military policemen, given the need of all of the former to express high volumes of firepower in prolonged actions or to keep close-quarters combat superiority. The standard paratrooper of the Folgore airborne division was armed exclusively with this weapon, and the division gave outstanding combat results. Similarly, Blackshirt legions (one per infantry division) were regarded and used as elite assault units both for their fanaticism and their armament, in which the Beretta 38 bulked. Regardless of the tables of organization and equipment of a given unit, the Beretta 38 was a popular weapon that could eventually find its way into the hands of virtually any soldier, especially amongst officers and higher non-commissioned officers, notably in Bersaglieri light infantry, artillery and armoured units. However, this weapon remained a rare view amongst common infantry and Alpini mountain infantry.

Italy developed a dedicated magazine-holding vest for elite troops (Blackshirts, paratroopers) armed with the Beretta 38; these were dubbed "Samurai" due to the aesthetic similarity of the stacked magazines with traditional Japanese armour. However these only came into use during the brief life of the R.S.I. and by then could be seen in the employ of many different units whose "elite" status could have been reasonably questioned (such as Black Brigades and other militias).

The 1938 series was extremely robust and proved very popular with both Axis forces as well as Allied troops, who utilized captured examples. Many German soldiers, including elite forces such as the Waffen-SS and Fallschirmjäger forces, actually preferred to use the Beretta 38 in combat.[ Firing a powerfully loaded Italian version of the widely distributed 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge, the Cartuccia Modello 38, the Beretta was accurate at longer ranges than most other submachine guns. Fully automatic or single-shot fire was selectable by the use of two triggers. The Model 38 had a wooden stock, was about 800 millimeters in length, and weighed about 3.3 kilograms when loaded, with an effective range of about 200 meters.

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